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arch 255
IMAGING
3D Modeling, Rendering, and Representation





    [ 2025 ]

    Course Level:
    Undergraduate Design Foundations
    7-1/2 week accelerator module


    Role:
    Primary Instructor


    • Course Objectives:

    + intro to physical/digital relationships
    + interface between 2D and 3D workflows
    + intro to texture mapping and 3D modeling
    + intro to rendering and post-processing
    + intro to 2D image curation





           

    garnett-design

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    Work displayed above authored by Jiayun (Wonda) Qian.




    The image is the architects’ most powerful tool. All at once a device used to communicate technical knowledge, tacit understanding, design sensibility, and sensitivity to a larger narrative, an architect’s mastery over the creation of an ‘image’ is tantamount to a pilot’s familiarity and competency with the controls in an aircraft’s cockpit. It is how designers convey their ideas in both school and in practice. Similarly, learning what and how much to represent in an image is just as tricky of an undertaking - when exploring perspective rendering or orthographic projection, understanding how little or how much constitutes an effective, economical, and communicative image requires iteration, curiosity, and a willingness to walk the line between clarity and complexity.

    This studio course focuses on image making as the generator of architectural ideas, formal variation, and organizational logic. The mode of making in this particular course will be primarily digital. Students will develop principles of abstract design thinking by working between 2D raster-based software and 3D digital modeling software to identify processes and workflows by which image attributes can be studied and deployed with explicit design intention. The module will culminate with a set of images that consider design (for architectural form or otherwise) and the production of image as a single synthetic act. Though intended primarily for students considering a design-related career, it is open to students from any discipline wishing to improve their visual literacy.